Death by selfie: Texas teenager Deleon Alonso Smith fatally shoots himself in neck while taking photo

Deleon Alonso Smith shot himself in the throat while taking selfies with his cousin

Texas teenager Deleon Alonso Smith has accidentally shot and killed himself while posing for selfies with a gun he found earlier in the day.

The 19 year old was taking photos of himself and his cousin when he inadvertently pulled the trigger and fired into his own neck. He died of a single gunshot, while his cousin was unharmed. His grandmother Alma Douglas said: "It's a numb feeling. It's still unbelievable. Yesterday was my birthday and he came to wish me happy birthday, and now this kind of news," reported The Sun.

Smith's death is the latest in a series of accidental injuries and deaths caused when people have been taking selfies. In July, a San Diego man hospitalised for five days after he attempted to take a selfie with a rattlesnake. Todd Fassler was hit with a medical bill of $156,000 (£100,000) following the incident.

In the same month a 21-year-old Russian university graduate fell to her death from a bridge while she was trying to take a selfie next to the Moscow International Business Centre. She had been taking a photo of herself and friends when she plunged into the nearby quayside. One month earlier another woman from Moscow almost died when she fired a pistol that pressed against her temple while posing for a selfie.